Summary:
On 10 December 2025, the NGO Notre Affaire à Tous announced a new collective complaint filed before the European Committee of Social Rights on behalf of residents of France’s overseas territories, challenging their exclusion from the protections of the European Social Charter. Together with the Caribbean association Kimbé Rèd F.W.I., a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the NGO reportedly filed a preliminary claim for compensation for damage and the denial of human rights remedies. They contest the exclusion of the residents of these territories from the protection of their human rights to work, education, housing, healthcare, clean water and a healthy environment.
More information on this case, and the extent to which the environmental rights concerned relate to climate change, has not been made public. Notably, however, the European Committee of Social Rights has recognized in the past that Article 11 of the European Social Charter (the right to health) includes a right to a healthy environment (Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights (MFHR) v. Greece, Collective Complaint No. 30/2005, 6 December 2006).